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The Career and Employment Center provides a variety of resources to currently enrolled students and Fresno City College alumni.

The Career Center at FCC serves students for personalized career counseling sessions, where students can receive guidance based on their academic background, interests, and career aspirations. These strategies for professional development help students navigate their career paths.

The Career Center offers workshops and one-on-one sessions dedicated to resume writing, cover letter composition and interview techniques. Students can also take sessions to practice their communication skills, build confidence and receive constructive feedback from experienced professionals.

Donna Cooper is the Dean of Instruction and Student Learning Support Services at FCC. She said the Career Center is beneficial to students.

“They’ll do mock interviews with them and help them talk through, how do you need to dress for this particular job that you’re going for an interview for,” Cooper said.

Cooper emphasized the importance of preparing students for job readiness.

“We help hundreds of students every month make connections in getting a job. So we have something called Jobspeaker, which is an online jobs board,” Cooper said.

The website Jobspeaker can help students connect with local colleges to identify possible candidates for any organization’s workforce. They also manage every aspect of a work based learning program.

Students can call to make an appointment, or they can just walk in. If a staff member is not available, they will schedule an appointment for the student.

FCC has been moving towards making it easier to help students get jobs.

“We’ve spent the last five years in the midst of the pandemic, really looking at how should we group all of our majors together. We spent a great deal of time reviewing and looking at our pathways, and we continue to reflect, and I’m sure they will change and morph over time,” Cooper said.

The five Ram pathways include:

• Arts, Communication and Language Business
• Culture, Education and Society
• Health and Stem
• Tech and Trades

These pathways help the staff give students advice and direction. The staff meets with students to talk about their career based on the pathway they are in. They connect students with people in their career to help align them to the work world.

FCC also offers the Learning Aligned Education Program (LAEP) that gives students an opportunity to earn money while gaining educational career-related employment.

LAEP helps students benefit from a position that relates to the student’s area of study, career objective, or the exploration of career objectives. The program includes and emphasizes positions for students with employers that are capable of providing them with full-time employment opportunities after graduation.

Students from underrepresented backgrounds are prioritized for participation.

“LAEP is a financial aid program that is awarded to eligible students as part of their financial aid award package,” Cooper said.

Britney Felix is a student at FCC who has used the resources at the career center to get a job.

“We did a bunch of personality tests and figured out what are my different options or what would work best for me, when choosing a career path, or even changing my major. I also figured out a lot of backup plans, in case what I was currently going for didn’t work for me or didn’t go through,” Felix said.

Felix is grateful for the opportunities offered on Jobspeaker.

“It’s not just things that are on campus. I made a resume. I went on Jobspeaker after applying for federal work study. I just was applying to all the ones that I could possibly apply to. Then I just got a call for here one day, I went into the interview, called back like, a week or two later, and I got the job, I definitely wouldn’t have known how to get a student aid job without them,” Felix said.

Internship opportunities are also available in the Career Center.

FCC is hosting a spring job fair on Wednesday, April 17 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. in front of the FCC library. About 40